Destiny 2’s fifth season, the Season of the Forge, just started, and along with it comes a pretty big update. Along with loading the new content coming in next week’s Black Armory release, Destiny 2 update 2.1.0 balances a number of weapons and abilities, as well as fixing some issues that were discovered since the Forsaken expansion released in September.

One of the biggest changes here comes in the form of a nerf to Trench Barrel, a perk that allowed players to melee and then do extra damage with a shotgun. In particular, the perk on the Ikelos shotgun from the Warmind expansion became a regularly used tool that could quickly melt any bosses health. The perk now deactivates after three shots, meaning players will either need to melee again, or change their strategies.

Submachine guns got a range increase, while machine guns got a bump to accuracy. This will make the Thunderlord Exotic quite a bit more viable in a number of situations. If you didn’t get it during the limited-time quest, it’s now in the regular Exotic loot pool. The Crucible has a couple new modes in rotation and the studio made some adjustments to Gambit. To get the full list of changes, additions, and fixes, check out the Destiny 2 update 2.1.0 patch notes below.

There will be another Destiny 2 update next week when Black Armory launches on December 4, 2018.

Destiny 2 Update 2.1.0 Patch Notes

The One About the Season of the Forge

Sandbox

Supers

Chaos Reach

Fixed an issue in which having multiple Chaos Reach beams active at one time caused their visual effects to merge together

Decreased camera shake and screen flash on hit in an attempt to alleviate feelings of motion sickness when using the Burning Maul Super

Thundercrash

Adjusted camera during flight sequence in an attempt to alleviate feelings of motion sickness when using Thundercrash Super

Exotic Armor

Fixed an issue in which Ophidian Aspect was not increasing the melee range on various Warlock charged melees (Igniting Touch, Ball Lightning, Entropic Pull, Devour, and Atomic Breach)

Fixed an issue in which buffs granted by Lunafaction Boots would last for only 15 seconds inside Well of Radiance rather than the entire duration

Fixed an issue on Ursa Furiosa so that Super gain from guarding is more consistent between PvE and PvP

Weapons

Warden’s Law

Replaced perks on Warden’s Law that did not function properly with the weapon’s archetype

Triple Tap replaced with Feeding Frenzy

Fourth Time’s the Charm replaced with Zen Moment

Warden’s Law now has bullet contrails

Updated the intrinsic perk text on Warden’s Law to distinguish it from Aggressive Burst Sidearms

High-Impact Scout Rifles

High-Impact Scout Rifle damage increased by 1.87%

Dev commentary: Previously it was possible to, at VERY high resilience levels, survive three headshots from a high impact scout rifle. This change will ensure that players at any resilience level will be defeated by three headshots.

Note: A fix that will return High-Impact Scout Rifles to 150 RPM is planned for Destiny 2 Update 2.1.1, scheduled for 12/4/2018

Shotguns

Rapid-Fire Frame on Shotguns now increases the reload of all Shotgun shells when empty instead of just the first shell

Trench Barrel

Trench Barrel perk now deactivates after three shots

Trench Barrel description updated to reflect new behavior and also fix an error where it called out increased accuracy instead of increase reload speed

Submachine Guns

Slightly increased range on Submachine Guns

Machine Guns

Slightly increased accuracy on Machine Guns

Exotic Weapons

Prometheus Lens

Prometheus Lens damage increased by 10%

Hard Light

Fixed an issue where Hard Light could overpenetrate an enemy Banner Shield”

Ace of Spades

Memento Mori reduced to five bullets, but can now be refreshed on reload without having to get rid of all the bonus damage bullets

General

Fixed mantle animation for the Queenbreaker

Fixed an issue where some particle effects were appearing in first-person view when using One Thousand Voices

Fixed an issue where Bows would sometimes become invisible when equipped

Polished the Blade Barrage animation for when the player is holding a Bow

Buffed out a missed spot on the Refer-a-Friend Borealis ornament

Fixed an issue that would delay the nocking of an arrow when the player picked up ammo while the Bow was both stowed and out of ammo

Fixed an issue where the Headseeker perk would no longer function after being activated numerous times without dying

Fixed an issue where the Ikelos Hand Cannon and Shotgun where displaying icons for Malfeasance and Chaperone in the obituary

Polished Grenade Launcher strafing animations to remove up and down reticle veering

Many bounties have had their objectives retuned to take less time and be easier to complete

Added a new daily bounty for killing Primeval envoys, and slotted it into the daily rotation

Fixed an issue where the Malfeasance quest could be progressed in Crucible modes

NOTE: Once S5 begins and Infamy is reset, you must play one Gambit match before redeeming any bounties. Players who turn in these bounties after Season of the Forge begins, but before playing a Gambit match, will not correctly receive points to their Infamy rank from these bounties.

Primeval Mechanics

Catch-up mechanics have been adjusted to ensure that the leading team retains more of an advantage

The trailing team will now receive a maximum of only one bonus stack of the Primeval Slayer buff (previously, they received up to three stacks depending on how far behind the trailing team was)

The time before the bonus stack kicks in has been increased to 32 seconds, up from 22 seconds

Primevals will hard ping less often, to reduce stunlock against highly coordinated teams

Matchmaking

Further addressing error codes that could occur during matchmaking, leading to potential quitter penalties

Clans

General

Last Wish raid bounties are now available to anyone who has access to the Last Wish raid.

Does not require Clan Rank 4

A new season of progression is available, with new perks to pursue

Fixed an issue where Weekly Raid Challenge Bounties were only available for 24 hours after reset

Items and Economy

General

Fixed an issue where the “Rainmaker” consumable didn’t provide showers of Glimmer from defeated enemies

Fixed an issue where Public Defender Ghost perk wasn’t properly applying to public events on Mars, the Tangled Shore, or the Dreaming City

Fixed an issue where Nightfall unique rewards were not dropping at the rate intended for non-Forsaken owners

Fixed an issue where not picking up Prime Engrams could allow players to earn more than the Prime Attunement buff allows for, putting them in a deficit of further Prime Engrams for a time corresponding to the number of extra Prime Engrams received

Triumphs

Fixed an issue where the title of Triumph “Steadfast” was “Meet Sloane on the moon Titan” (you must still meet Sloane on the moon Titan)

PC

Note: The fireteam commands can target any player by providing the player’s full BattleTag, allowing players to assemble fireteams without sending friend requests.

UI

General

Adjusted item tooltips to fix an issue where perks or other information was cut off on the Character Screen

Fixed an issue where the rank-up banner for Crucible and Gambit was not being appropriately displayed on 21:9 resolutions

Fixed an issue where players were unable to return to orbit while the Results Screen was up at the end of an activity

Localization

Traditional Chinese

Fixed an issue where some parts of the Traditional Chinese UI was not loading properly in-game

Misc

Performance

Improved activity and destination load times on consoles

Note: We are actively investigating load times for loading the player inventory screen, switching between UI tabs starting up the game, signing on, and selecting characters. See This Week at Bungie – 11/08/2018 for more details.

HDR

Fixed an issue where brightness was not adjusting properly for players

General

Fixed an issue with missing Transmat FX on Amanda’s exchange

Fixed an issue with erroneous source strings on multiple Dawning and Crimson Days items

Fixed an issue that caused several shaders to be unavailable for bulk exchange at Rahool

Fixed an issue where some UI elements would not load properly if interacting with a vendor and launching into character inventory

Fixed an issue where the Fortunate Projection was causing visual effects issues in third person

Fixed an issue in which the IGR version of the “High and Mighty” bounty did not count wanted escapee kills

Fixed an issue in which the IGR version of the “I’m Not Sorry, I’m Lost” bounty required too many points for completion

Fixed an issue in which the IGR version of the “Through the Crucible” bounty required too few points for completion

Fixed an issue that caused high amounts of Baboon errors in the Tower

What’s your favorite addition or change with Destiny 2 update 2.1.0? Are you glad to see the boss melt meta changing? Are there any additional changes not made here that you want to see? Let us know in the comments below.

While Season of the Forge began today, the first round of content from the Annual Pass, Black Armory, will begin rolling out on December 4, 2018. Bungie confirmed to us that the Raid included with Black Armory will be “much larger” than the two Leviathan Raid Lairs, though smaller than the massive Last Wish Raid that came with Forsaken.